N04855:610
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…
Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that we may comfortably walk with God in our general and particular callings: &c. In a letter to a pious friend in England. / By Thomas Shepard, M.A. Formerly of Emmanuel-College in Cambridge in England: afterward Minister of Cambridge in New-England. ; Corrected by four several editions.
Boston: printed by Rogers and Fowle, 1747
MEDITATIONS AND Spiritual Experiences OF Mr. THOMAS SHEPARD.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
May 7. I saw in Prayer, that before I, or any other could seek or serve the Lord, I was to set up the Lord in the Throne of my Mind and Heart, both in his Greatness, and in his Goodness to me. And the Lord gave me some Glimpse of both that Morning; yet I saw that all was little enough to make me seek him and serve him. For I saw my Heart averse from his Will, and that the Lord must be exceeding great and dear in my Heart, or else it would never seek and serve him. And so I considered, If it be so hard to seek the Lord when he is set up, how difficult to seek or serve him when he is cast down? Surely if there be any Services or Seekings without setting up the Lord, they are Hypocrisies.
I saw also, how great my Sin would be, not to be acquainted and grow familiar with the Lord; when he hath humbled himself into my Flesh for that End, and to make a near Conjunction between himself and me. For we are joined to Man, who is Flesh of our Flesh, sooner, than with an Angel, or with God. ⟨p. 22⟩When the Devil comes to make a Covenant, he assumes the Shape of a Man. And here I saw that our Union is first to the humane Nature, and so to the Divine: Because the Divine Nature comes down into the humane, that it may be a Mean of Conjunction of the Soul to God, and of God to the Soul.—And I saw, that as we are sooner conjoined to Man; so God in Man is sooner conjoined, or he more easily conjoins himself to us, who is filled with real humane Bowels for that End, and hath suffered that no Justice might stop him in his Work.—
I considered, that when Prayer is vehement for a Blessing, and our Humiliation and Breaking, from Sin is suitable to our Affection, God ever answers them. Hence, let Men observe, if they are earnest for any outward Blessing, and their Hearts are stirred up so as to believe they shall have it, let them see if their Humiliation was proportionable. Hence also 'tis, that when the Lord denies us, 'tis ever to humble us, which is Mercy; and we shall see that we have most need of that. And hence also when humbled, we may reap the Fruit of Prayers made many Years before.